For a long time gardeners have relied on all sorts of sayings as a means of predicting the weather. Example “When leaves show their undersides, be very sure that rain betides” or “When spider webs in air do fly, the weather will soon be very dry”.

Gardeners and farmers thought that Good Friday was the best day for planting because itwas the only day of the year when the devil was thought to be powerless. 

Placing several banana peels in the planting hole was popular among rose growers in the 18th century, but they had no idea why the peels seemed to yield healthier roses.  Today, we know that banana peels contained many useful nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphates and sodium. The peels rot quickly which means these nutrients are readily available to the plant.

Synthetic rooting hormone is used to stimulate root growth in cutting of all kinds. Along time ago gardeners didn’t have commercial rooting hormone, but they did know tea made from willow stems would enable cuttings to root a lot faster. Receipt for the tea was simple. Place several pieces of cut willow stems in a container and add enough warm water to cover the stems by about one inch. After several days the stems were removed and new cutting were dipped into the willow tea before planting. The willow water contained a growth hormone called indolebutyric acid, which is an active ingredient in modern synthetic rooting compounds.

Savvy gardeners know that soil temperature is one of the best indicators when to plant certain seeds. But the modern soil thermometer wasn’t invented until 1714 and the association of soil temperature and seed germination rates wasn’t established for least another 150 years. So how did the gardeners of old know when it was safe to plant? They had a saying that goes like this “If you can sit on the ground with your trousers down, it’s safe to sow your seed”.